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“He’s fucked,” Axle chuckled. “Feds are gonna swarm him.”
“Which then would lead tousbeing swarmed,” Viper snapped, his eyes on fire as he glared at Axle. “There’s nothing fucking good about this situation—and youbetternot have had anything to do with the death of Francis.”
“Why the hell would I?” Axle roared back, shoving his chair back from the table. “The guy was a worthless piece of shit. He wasn’t worth the lead, and so I saw him two streets out, then let him get on. There was no way that guy was coming back.”
“You should’ve stayed on him until he was out of town limits,” Viper growled.
“This isn’t going to help anything,” I leveled with them, shaking my head. “It doesn’t change what happened. This isn’t our problem. We need to just stay the fuck out of it. For all we know, someone from Oakland could’ve shown up. He seemed to be expecting that, anyway.”
“Or it was Robbie,” Will said, shrugging his shoulders. “I mean, the dude offered money for his death.”
“I don’t think he had the balls to do it,” Viper huffed, standing to his feet. “And I only threw it out to get Johnston out of here. He needs to stay away from here. More than likely there’s already eyes on him.”
“Maybe,” Will agreed. “Either way, we need to lay low. Stay the fuck out of it.”
“Agreed,” Viper said with a sigh. “I need a beer.”
Everyone nodded in agreement, and I glanced back down at my phone. It was so tempting to reach out to Hallie and beg for one more chance. I mean, my phone had been busted. There was no way that I could use it to get ahold of her—and I hated the fact that I wasn’t there to help her on the side of the road…
But I would’ve been had she reached out to anyone else.
“You just gonna sit there all evening?” Will slapped my shoulder as he walked past my chair. “You look like you could use a break.”
“Something like that,” I grumbled, forcing myself to follow him. I shoved my phone in my pocket, wishing I could just forget her for a while. I was the last one out of the conference room, and I took in the sight of the full lounge. It was full of my brothers, but also the hang-arounds.
I walked up to the bar, noticing Hannah and Linley appearing to be deep in conversation beside me. I ignored them, motioning to Sarah to grab me a beer.
But then I heardhername.
“What’re you two talking about?” I demanded, interjecting their conversation with no guilt at all.
“Easy there,” Hannah smiled, her piercing blue eyes meeting mine. “We weren’t saying anything bad about Hallie, Gunner. We were just talking about the fact that it sucks the two of you couldn’t work things out.”
“She doesn’t want to be a part of this life.”
“No, she just wants you to be reliable,” Linley shot back, her voice sharp. “She’s got a daughter, so whoever wants to be in her life, has to be in Iris’s as well—like a dad.”
I swallowed hard at that. I knew she was right. “My phone broke.”
“Yeah, but that was just the last straw,” Hannah pointed out, sipping on her martini. “It’s going to take a grand gesture to win her over—and you need to win thembothover.”
“I would be more than happy to do that… I just don’t know how to win over a seven-year-old,” I said, folding my arms across my chest. “But I would’ve been willing to figure it out.”
“You mean, nine-year-old,” Linley laughed, shaking her head at me. “You really can’t age kids, can you? She turns ten in just a few months.”
“Damn, I thought she was seven,” I chuckled, reaching for my beer. However, as I picked it up, my heart flipped in my chest.
She’s nine—almost ten.
My head started spinning… How long had it been since I had been with Hallie? Was it ten years? Eleven? How old was I? How many years had I been out of prison?
“Gunner, are you okay?” Hannah’s eyes went wide, but I couldn’t even find the words to answer her.
Is she… Is Iris my daughter?
There was no way, though. It made no sense. Why would Hallie have a kid with me and not tell me? She had never hidden anything from me—that just wasn’t the kind of person she was…
Or was she?
